Chapter 419 — Barely
CHAPTER 419
Barely
The horns started at sunrise.
Shi Feng woke on the floor with the furnace ledger still in his hand and a crick in his neck. A quilt lay crooked over his shoulders, and he didn't remember it. The bed above him was empty. Outside, long red horns were blowing across the hills, one after another, low and ugly.
“Attendant,” Sima Lan said from the doorway.
She had her slate under one arm and her sleeves tied back. Old Soot sat on her shoulder, glaring at the flowers on the windowsill.
“Blood Lotus,” Sima Lan said. “Three hundred men at the foot of the Fanghua Hills, four Golden Core lieutenants, and a man in red who doesn't walk on the ground. The Valley wants you on the terrace.”
“Where's Ling Qingzhu?” Shi Feng asked.
“Gone. An hour ago, against the physician's orders,” Sima Lan replied, looking from the empty bed to him. She made a note on her slate. “I'm not recording that.”
“You just did,” Shi Feng pointed out, pushing the quilt aside.
“It's a small note,” Sima Lan said. “Get up.”
The terrace above the Heart Garden gate was crowded with green sashes. Valley Master Mu Shuyun stood at the rail, grey in the face, one hand on the stone. An elder tried to take her elbow. She shook him off.
Mu Shuyun could stand again after taking the pill at the Cauldron Court. The disciples still looked amazed whenever she refused help. None dared remind her how ill she'd been.
“The cure goes into the seed beds at noon,” Bai Chenxi said. The frost-sword disciple stood beside her, pale and calm. “Six hours. If the beds burn first, the Valley has no spring.”
“They know that,” Mu Shuyun said. “Hua Rong gave them the array rotations. They're coming now because in three days nobody will be sick enough to bribe. Even a cornered rabbit will bite.”
“Then we hold the array,” Bai Chenxi said.
“Every elder we have is holding it,” Mu Shuyun said. “That is what the array costs.”
“Junior Brother!” Lin Langtian called from the terrace rail.
Lin Langtian sat on the terrace rail, eating a sweet potato. He had been pinned to the array for days. Now he looked rested, cheerful and slightly offended by the weather.
“You look terrible,” Lin Langtian said, studying him. “Good thing you finished the pills. Another day at that furnace and we'd have to carry you home too.”
“The array?” Shi Feng asked.
“Handed off. Mu Shuyun's elders have it,” Lin Langtian replied, licking his thumb. “I've been watching the nice man in the sky since last night. He wants a chat. Over there, where nobody's roof is.”
Shi Feng looked where he pointed. Above the far ridge a figure in blood-red robes stood on empty air. Even from the terrace, the sight made his skin tighten. It was the pressure of a realm far above his own.
“Blood Lotus Sect Master, Hong Jue,” Mu Shuyun said quietly. “Late Nascent Soul.”
“Don't worry,” Lin Langtian said. He stepped off the rail. “I'll be rude to him.”
He walked into the air as if it were a staircase. A moment later he was a dot, and then two dots, and then a flash.
Boom!
The sky cracked from ridge to ridge. A shock rolled down the hill and rattled every shutter in the Valley.
“Early Nascent Soul against late Nascent Soul!” a disciple screamed.
“Senior Brother Lin is going to die!” “He is throwing an egg at a rock!”
“Somebody say a prayer!”
“Say two!”
Lin Langtian's voice rolled down from above, loud enough to shake the roof tiles.
“Hong Jue! Do you know what the rate is for trespassing on a Great Sect's air?” Lin Langtian shouted. “It's three stones a breath, and you've been up here for a hundred!”
A red blade of light tore across the sky. Another ridge lost its peak.
“That was a nice mountain!” Lin Langtian shouted. “The Valley will bill you for it! I'm barely holding! Barely! Somebody send help! Preferably money!”
The terrace went silent.
“He is… holding,” Mu Shuyun said slowly.
“Barely, he says,” Bai Chenxi said.
“His robe isn't even creased,” Sima Lan said. She had a hand over her eyes, shading them, watching closely rather than panicking with the disciples. “He's complaining about the mountain. He doesn't complain about anything he's afraid of.”
“He complains about everything,” Shi Feng said.
“Then he's afraid of nothing,” Sima Lan said. “I wouldn't put that in writing either.”
Up in the sky the red robes flickered, drew back and came again. Each time, Lin Langtian's voice followed them. He objected to the sect master's manners, his footwork and his taste in red. At one point he demanded a receipt.
Old Soot hissed at nothing. Sima Lan took her hand from her eyes.
“Look,” Sima Lan said.
On the road below the Heart Garden, four figures had stepped from the trees. They didn't hide. A big man with a great saber over his shoulder walked in front. A woman in a red hood carried a bundle of long needles in each hand. Behind them walked two men in black, in no hurry at all.
Behind them came three hundred Blood Lotus disciples, with torches.
“The sect master pins Lin Langtian in the sky,” Bai Chenxi said, “and the lieutenants take the gate.”
“And all our elders are on the array,” Mu Shuyun said. She closed her eyes for a moment. “Nobody is left to hold the gate.”
“I'll go,” Bai Chenxi said.
“So will I,” Shi Feng said.
“You've slept on floors for three days,” Mu Shuyun said.
“It's a good floor,” Shi Feng said.
“Then you'll be three,” Ling Qingzhu announced from the stair.
The familiar voice made Shi Feng pause. Shi Feng didn't need to turn around, but he did.
Ling Qingzhu stood at the top step in a violet inner robe, her sword at her hip and her hair tied back with a plain cord. She was very pale. There was a faint grey shadow under each eye, and her left hand was held loosely at her side, fingers open, where anybody could see the nails had turned pink again.
“You should be in bed,” Shi Feng said.
“I was,” Ling Qingzhu said. “It's empty. You noticed.”
“I'm well,” Ling Qingzhu added, a little too quickly.
“You answered fast,” Shi Feng said.
Ling Qingzhu pressed her thumb to her sleeve, then hurriedly lowered her hand. She didn't want him noticing her nervous habit.
“Then I'll prove it,” Ling Qingzhu said, and started down the stairs.